(Yicai Global) Sept. 12 -- Bearings producer Baota Industry has won a bid to supply 300 axle boxes and related bearings to the operator of Beijing's subway, suggesting a good start to efforts aimed at easing China's reliance on imports.

The order comes after Baota became the first domestic manufacturer to pass the Beijing Mass Transit Railway Operation's tests last September, the company said in a statement yesterday. Before that it had overhauled some of the public transport firm's related products.

The supply contract is a major breakthrough in high-end bearings production and will help to boost the company's profit, it added.

Shares of Baota [SHE:000595], based in China's northwestern Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, jumped 3.8 percent today to close at CNY3.81 (56 US cents), after earlier gaining by the daily limit of 10 percent. The benchmark Shenzhen Component Index fell.